my wifes trike

[vegaspaddy]

sorry haven't been around but its been a long summer for me...my wifes MS has been getting worse and doubled my workload with the little ones.

Anyhow to cut to the chase my wife can not ride a bike (had accident when she was a kid) so last year i went on a quest to find her some wheels so we could cycle together as a family.

Ebay, last year, got a wonderful deal on a trike and snapped it up. Hitched the kids trailer up to it and instant "taxi to the park".. Problem now rig is way to heavy and so my journey into motoring anything on wheels begins.

Started off with an electric kit cyclone 350 watt 24 volt and instant hill climber... pic 1 and 2. having rode the bike for over a year the electric kit has been a life saver, helped with the extra weight, too many hotdogs for the kids..

The problem with the rig however was that it was limited to how far we could travel and have enough juice to get back and when climbing hills the sheer weight of our mini road train, fully loaded, saps the juice out of the batteries.

So in the last couple of weeks i added a motor to her and when my wife gets better, she now has a bike she will never have to pedal again. I attached a DE friction kit with a honda 50cc to it, as it was the easiest solution i could find for the trike, could have chain drive but i didnt like the postioning of the engine would have been in the kids faces....

Anyhow sorry i havnt been around for awhile, have been posting in the other,you now where place, but cant have you Happy Timers having all the fun.

will have to set up a photobucket a/c soon so i can post MY rides....

[Dan]

Welcome back. Great looking ride.

Am trying to figure out your friction kit. Does it have gears or just st8 friction drive?

[vegaspaddy]

thanks Dan, i can use the trikes gear cluster with the electric motor (pic 2 first post),but as with most of the friction setups, no gears just different size rollers, bigger- faster, smaller more torque.

The kit came with a selection of wooden rollers. It had the 1 1/2 drive wheel already fitted when it arrived so i left it on there. The problem with my rig, it is so heavy i have to lock the engagement angle with more pressure than normal onto the tire, otherwise i was just getting burning rubber. That in itself was wearing my wooden rollers down to the size of the washers nestled at the sides.

I have ordered some more heavy duty rollers which will solve this problem, and i will probably need to put a slicker thread on there once the current tires wear out...

Apart from that everything works fine the engine is a beaut, compared to my other two, a tanaka 33cc and mits 43cc a different beast altogether. It is alot of fun to cruise around the neighborhood on, lets say lots of second looks !!!!!

I love the engagement handle no pull cord to start this baby up, just get her moving to about 8 to 10 miles per hour manually or with the electric motor pull the handle forward (roller drops onto wheel) and within seconds we have ignition, the easiest way to start ever... i just have to add a remote kill switch on the handlebars as the on-off switch is at the rear off the engine.

You can see the roller in these pics, i have the engine sitting straighter since these were taken.

[Dave31]

Very cool, I like it